Writing Frenzy!!!

Those of you that know me outside of the blogosphere know that I love to write.  I have loved writing ever since I was a child, and lately I've been in a bit of a writing frenzy. Over the last 3 years I have actively attempted to participate in National Novel Writing Month. It's known to writers as NaNoWriMo, or NaNo for short. I've never finished any of my novels.  To prepare myself, in the month of October, I've been on a writing frenzy for this little gem:

A Chance At Paradise is the prequel to my new series, called "God's Spotlight" Each novel will deal with a different girl facing a crisis between her life and faith, often dealing with complications from love, glory and fame.

The prequel to the God's Spotlight Series follows Daviana Sales, a senior at East Los High in Los Angeles. 

Seventeen year old Daviana has the life every girl wants. Pretty and popular, Daviana is the new captain of the varsity cheerleaders, has some of the best grades in school and is on track to score the lead in the school play. 

Daviana has her eye on star quarterback Xavier Delgado, determined to make him her leading man. Before she can be with him, the shocking truth comes out. Xavier has a reputation for sleeping with the prettiest girls in school.

When Daviana auditions for A Chance at Paradise, the school play, she finds a new love, the theater.  She also becomes smitten with the play's writer, quiet, modest and God fearing soccer star Teodoro Reyes. But Teodoro and Daviana come from two different worlds... Everything flips on its head when Daviana is cast as the lead in A Chance At Paradise, and Xavier wins the male lead role. Just when all is going well,  Xavier must deal with a crisis, and Daviana has to convince Teodoro that it is time to step out of the shadows, and into the spotlight.

 Daviana will go on to make an appearance in my NaNoWriMo novel  On The Edge of Paradise, coming in November. I'll post more about that novel as it gets closer. Both novels have some compromising material, but they also embody the struggles faced by those who follow (as well as those who have fallen away from) the Christian Faith. 

I no longer trust completely online schools. Here's Why.

Wow, it has been forever since I posted on this blog. But I feel like I just need to vent a little bit.

I have always been a big advocate for education. Those of you who know me know that I was once a major in Education, and decided to leave it because I felt like I would not have a future as an educator in my state. The funny thing is I keep finding ways to go back into the field, whether it is providing a friend with free tutoring or working with a nonprofit education program as an interpreter.

The former part of that journey has been bothering me lately.  A few years ago I befriended a young woman online, who I will not name in this blog for the sake of her privacy. She is about 5-6 years older than me and suffers from an unknown combination of learning disabilities, one of which is ADHD. When I met her, she was unemployed, and spent most of her time travelling between her parents home and the home of a family friend. She split time between both homes and babysat for her friends' young children. She also was always on social media.

In 2011, she expressed to me that she wanted to work as a childcare provder and has dreams of  opening her own daycare. I encouraged her to seek out programs in her hometown, perhaps at a local community college. I also told her that I would support her as much as was humanly possible.

Aside from me and a cousin who is more like a sister to her, she has had quite a lack of support for the decision. Her mother wants to kick her out of their home, and while she wants her daughter to get a job, she has never supported her choice to go back to school.

Against my advice, my friend enrolled in an Associates program in Psychology at Argosy University online. She has never registered with the school as having any kind of disability either, despite my pleas to do so in order for her to get more assistance. This is due to the fact that she believes she will be treated with kid gloves if she does so. Until this year, she believed she was obtaining an Associates in the Childcare field, because she thought Psychology and Childcare were the same degree.

Argosy is the worst possible decision my friend ever made.  The syllabi provided for her courses do not give due dates for assignments so she cannot organize herself accordingly. She also relies on me to "rephrase" her work for her so that the writing matches college level, as she makes frequent spelling and grammar mistakes. Despite my efforts to teach her, she is still unable to properly cite sources for her papers so I edit those too.  I do all this for her online since I live in NC and she lives in PA.

Somehow, even when I back off of helping her, she still passes her courses.  I have expressed concerns and even gone so far as to contact the school's online chat to see who she needs to contact since she seems to be reluctant to do it herself for fear of looking stupid.
I am at a point where I am ready to stop helping her, but am not sure how to explain to her my reasons.

Moral of the story: Unless you are in a Master's or Doctoral program or are highly motivated, do NOT look at online schools. If you must, check reviews of the school, good and bad. If you have a disability, make sure it is documented with the university you attend before you begin classes. If you do not know how, ask. Stand up for yourself. Because in college, no one else will.